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A piece of Myers Park property with a controversial and irritating history for its neighbors has finally been sold and is slated for redevelopment.

Charlotte-based Eastern Federal Corp. has purchased the Manor House property in the 2800 block of Selwyn Avenue for $2.9 million from the descendants of longtime owner Armand T. Daniel.

A 72-unit building and three small quadraplexes situated on 2.5 acres are included in the sale. The Manor House has most recently been used as an extended-stay motel.

"We want to develop something that, in terms of its use and appearance, matches more closely to the character of the surrounding Myers Park neighborhood," says Carter Meiselman, Eastern Federal chief executive. "We feel certain the community will respond positively to an improvement over what is currently there."

But Meiselman says any plans the company has are too preliminary to reveal.

An Eastern Federal affiliate already owns the adjacent Colony Shops and the Selwyn Shops diagonally across from the Manor House on Selwyn Avenue.

"We are looking forward to working closely with the city and with the neighborhood to determine just what that improvement will look like," he says.

The Manor House property is zoned for office and business uses, says Keith MacVean, land development program manager for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission.

"You can also do a mixed-use, office or residential development under the current zoning," he says.

The zoning allows for multifamily development at 22 units an acre. MacVean says planners might also be open to adding ground-floor retail.

"From a planning perspective, we could possibly support something that is a mix of office and residential that is pedestrian friendly," he says. "I think what we would have to be careful of is the height and the scale because it backs up to residential."

What it backs up to is some of the most desirable and valuable residential property in the city.

The Manor House had been on the market for $3.5 million, a price local developers say was too high for its development potential without the adjacent Eastern Federal property.

"I think deals continued to fall through because you basically need the rest of that land to do something with it," says Clay Grubb, president of Grubb Properties in Charlotte. "We looked at it, and it just wasn't big enough to do something that we would like to do."

Meiselman says the site is too small for development of a movie theater, the hallmark of Eastern Federal's operations since the company's inception in the 1930s.

Myers Park has recently seen a flood of midrise residential development, so that seems a logical use for the Manor House property, says David Haggart, a partner with Childress Klein Properties.

"I think an appropriate use would be a high-density mix of residential and retail," he says. "Midrise of three to four floors with retail on the ground, similar to what has been done up and down Selwyn and Brandywine."

Guests staying at the Manor House were informed in an April 12 letter that the property might soon change hands.

"We have met with the buyers this week in an effort to prolong the closing for another two months," the letter states. "Unfortunately, the buyers have said that this is impossible."

The guests who had paid in advance were allowed to stay until April 21.

The Manor House opened in the early 1970s. At that time, its one- and two-bedroom apartments rented for $14 per night to $150 per week. Its tenants once included corporate executives and visiting notables such as Alabama Gov. George Wallace.

Owner Armand Daniels, a Mocksville businessman, had rebuilt the apartments on the site of the old Myers Park Manor. In 1972, he made waves by asking the city to rezone the property to allow him to operate it as a motel. But he didn't bother to wait for City Council approval.

More than 250 Myers Park residents protested Daniels' application and the city vetoed the rezoning, saying the change would place a business zone too close to a residential area.

Daniels refused to close the business he named the Manor House Aptel, saying there were no rules stipulating how long an apartment has to be rented. "Aptel" was a word Daniels coined by combining "apartment" and "motel."

It was still called the Manor House Aptel until the day it was sold to Eastern Federal.

Rob Hord of RED Partners represented Eastern Federal and its affiliates on the purchase, and Jeff Young of Myers Park Properties represented the sellers of the Manor House.

"The company has had an investment in this area of town for a very long time," says Bill Wilson, Eastern Federal vice president and director of real estate. "We are glad to add to it on a tax-efficient basis."

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